3. Memorandum submitted by
the Ascension Trust
MISSION STATEMENT
Street Pastors is an interdenominational response
to neighbourhood problems; engaging with people on the streets
and in night-time venues to, listen, dialogue and offer practical
help and solutions.
VALUES
— The sacredness and sanctity of human
life.
— Valuing and honouring the community.
— Taking personal responsibility.
— Being a person of integrity.
— The growth and development of the
person to their fullest potential.
AIM
— To develop the project to build capacity
and sustainability.
— To provide an outreach volunteer
service to prevent crime, defuse volatile situations and divert
those involved and/or at risk of criminal activity and anti-social
behaviour into training, employment and other meaningful and empowering
pursuits.
HISTORY
Ascension Trust began in 1993 by Reverend Les
Isaacs who wanted to see individuals working effectively within
their local church, community, city and nation. The idea was to
provide a means through training, education and nurturing to develop
and empower others to contribute positively to the society in
which they live and subsequently improve their quality of life.
The organisation has a passion to see people
lives healed of the social injustices that deprives and excludes
them from participating in mainstream activities and leads to
a life of deprivation. We are faced with countless examples of
economic, social and spiritual deprivation and extremes in living
conditions in Britain highlighting the plight of poverty in our
society. Ascension Trust led by Reverend Les Isaacs and managed
by trustees from a wide range of professional and business disciplines
has a vision to utilise the skills and professional expertise
of like-minded Christians and non-Christians to address issues
facing our society today in a practical and solution focused way.
Today rather than preaching the heaven and hell
message he now mobilises church leaders and members to tackle
and face the rising issue of gun crime and violence that is adversely
affecting our communities.
The need for the church to implement a strategy
to address this issue of street crime was birthed and in 2001
Les Isaacs visited Jamaica to research how the churches there
had responded to gun crime, which was by now reaching endemic
proportions. Les met with two pastors whose work on the streets
of Jamaica befriending gang members, drug Lords and acting as
intermediaries for the police inspired him to establish teams
voluntary outreach workers from the church who would go into their
communities and engage with disaffected young people. In 2002
David Shosanya, trustee for Ascension Trust visited Boston to
study the Baker House initiative from which the 10 Point Coalition
was drafted. These studies underpinned the development of the
British street pastors' model which was then adopted in Jamaica
and enabled wider participation from the churches.
In 2002 Ascension Trust launched a "Guns
of our Streets Tour" to five London hotspots; Brent, Hackney,
Haringey, Lambeth and Southwark, Aston in Birmingham and inner
city Moss Side and Longsight in Manchester. The aim of the tour
was to:
— Raise community and church awareness
of gun crime and the fast growing gun culture.
— Think about and implement practical
solutions to stem the tide of gun and violent crimes in the UK.
— Build community and church support,
by working together to effect change in socially deprived and
high crime areas.
— To enlist the support and consult
with young people, parents, the police, local MPs, community and
church leaders, Probation and other statutory agencies.
A report was produced after the tour highlighting
the findings from the consultations and discussions that took
place. As a response to the recommendations made the Street Pastors
project was launched in January 2003. The launch coincided with
the tragic deaths of teenagers Charlene Ellis and Latisha Shakespeare—caught
in crossfire when attending a new years party in Birmingham on
January 2nd. Church leaders looked to Ascension Trust for guidance.
THE STREET
PASTORS INITIATIVE
Street Pastors is an interdenominational response
to neighbourhood problems; engaging with people on the streets
and in night-time venues to, listen, dialogue and offer practical
help and solutions. A Street Pastor is a concerned member of a
local church who goes out on the streets at night to engage, listen
and care for people on the margins of society. Their purpose is
not to preach heaven and hell, but to provide a solution focused
approach to address the issues facing disenfranchised youth. The
street pastors outreach sessions operates on Friday and Saturday
nights from 10 pm-4 am. They go out in teams under the supervision
of a senior Street Pastor and wear a distinctive blue jacket and
cap bearing the logo "STREET PASTORS" in reflective
lettering. All street pastors have to attend 12 week training
programme to ensure they are equipped mentally, spiritually and
practically to engage effectively with people on the street and
to provide them with advice, guidance and support to access mainstream
services.
This work is highly sensitive and integral to
it is open dialogue and joint working with the police, community
and church leaders to ensure that boundaries are defined and the
work being undertaken by the Street Pastors is understood. Collaborative
inter-agency ways of working is actively encouraged to address
the myriad of issues affecting socially excluded young people
of which there are many black children.
The key issues for this group are:
— They are often disaffected young
people suffering the breakdown of family.
— Not having either parents or anyone
to care for them, often living on their own or in care.
— Many have dropped out of school or
excluded.
— Lack training/qualifications.
— Getting involved in criminality ie
drugs are a lucrative business.
— Vulnerable/at risk ie do what people
tell them to do.
The gangs play an integral part in affirming
their identity and give them a role/status amongst their peers.
There are many black children fitting this description and part
of the intervention strategy to get them re-engaged in society
to access training, education and employment is done by the work
of the Street Pastors and Co-ordinators by:
— establishing trust, through rapport
and dialogue;
— providing a listening ear;
— being present and available during
unsocial hours;
— providing the opportunity to hand
in dangerous weapons (in line with police protocol);
— providing information and advice—directory
of local agencies and national help lines;
— making referrals into education,
training;
— working with other voluntary and
statutory agencies;
— being a deterrent to violence and
vandalism;
— providing prayer support;
— collecting baseline information on
the young people for follow-up; and
— having access to activity and support
that will reduce criminal activity and behaviour.
GROWTH AND
DEVELOPMENT OF
THE STREET
PASTORS INITIATIVE
Street pastors is now a successful inter-denominational
programme with well over 450 trained volunteer street pastors
from a range of church backgrounds, who regularly take to the
streets of some of London's boroughs with the highest offending
rates, levels of drug abuse, gun and other violent crime and urban
deprivation (including Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham, Brent). There
are currently 80 new street pastors in training in London and
we have many on the waiting list for the September course.
We are now operating nationally with Street
Pastors in inner city areas around the country known for having
similar problems (such as Birmingham, Manchester, Leicester, Leeds).
We also work in areas not traditionally linked with such extreme
social conditions—such as Merton, Bromley and Sutton in
London, Southend and Kingston—that find themselves affected
by the malevolence of binge drinkers, anti-social behaviour, knife
crime and the like. We work closely with local churches, other
community leaders, agencies and projects—both statutory
and voluntary—to look at collaborative ways of tackling
issues affecting young people and the communities in which they
live. A key element of our approach is to build trust and to join
up the work on the streets with that provided by other agencies—principally
what Les Isaacs calls the "urban trinity", the relationship
between the church, police and local authority.
The initiative is developing rapidly across
the country and internationally and on average we are getting
at about three or four enquiries a week. Below is a list of projects
and developments:
International
Antigua and Barbuda
Training
Cambridge; Enfield; Kingston-upon-Thames; Orpington;
Wrexham and Haringey.
Poised For
Aberdeen; Bexley; Bedford; Braintree; Barnet;
Croydon; Huddersfield; Horsham; Ipswich; Merseyside; Norwich;
Portsmouth; Chard, Somerset; South Wales; Weston-Super-Mare and
Bridgend.
In Discussion
Bournemouth; Bishop's Stortford; Bristol; Blackburn;
Brighton; Cornwall; Chelmsford; Camden; Coventry; Dorset; Epsom;
Grinstead; Hounslow; Halifax; Havering; Northern Ireland; Luton;
Lincolnshire; Maidstone; Milton Keynes; Nottingham; Rushden; Northampton;
Plymouth; Preston; Reading; Staffordshire; Sheffield; Yeovil;
Stoke-on-Trent; Southampton; Stowmarket; Suffolk; Southport; Mid-Wales
and Yeovil.
Contacted By
Canada; Ghana; Pakistan; Dominica; New Zealand;
America and Nigeria.
Reverend Les Isaacs
Director
July 2006
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